The Cocky Hockey Captain

Chapter 7 ● Dudette Looks Like A Boy

I was allowed to join class that morning despite the blatant violation to the dress code, but I had to promise that the next day I'd be in compliance.

The morning went by with me furiously looking up manly passing wigs online, but even if that were a viable option it'd never arrive to the Alberta wilderness in a single day. I almost got caught by a teacher while I was looking up how to pin my hair up to make it look like I had a short bob, but I didn't know how that was going to work on a daily basis.

By the time lunch came I had resigned myself to my fate. What was the big deal with hair anyway? It could grow. I didn't care about it.

Still, as I sat alone at a lunch table I stared at the bundle of my hair in my hand and sighed. Up to now I'd grown it not because I particularly wanted to, but because I was a girl and it was expected that I had girly hair. I realized that I was not wearing any makeup or nail polish, or carried a purse around these days and I was not dying from it.

There were so many things I was used to doing just because I was a girl that I hadn't thought of.

Two shadows cast over me and I looked up as Pace and Brian dropped their trays in front of me. I glanced from one to the other as they picked up their food and started eating without saying a word.

Finally I couldn't take it anymore. "What can I do for you, gentlemen?"

Pace swept his brown hair away from his forehead as he chewed on what basically was half of his sandwich. But then again, his tray was heaped with more sandwiches.

"So, Bernal Oil, huh?"

I leaned back on my chair and folded my arms. "What about it?"

"Man, you're not gonna have it easy in town."

Brian leaned forward and said, "Most of the people in town work in oil. People started getting laid off when Bernal Oil brought in some new machines that are supposed to do the work of two people, you know."

I frowned. Was that the problem that had forced my dad to come over? To try to appease the jobless people?

"I didn't know," I said.

"We heard the big boss of Bernal was moving to town to negotiate with the unions," Pace said and it was a miracle we understood him, because his mouth was still stuffed with food. "Is that your dad, then?"

I nodded and sank in my chair.

Yeah, so I knew my dad was a bit of a dick. A person had to be, if they were to reach the lengths he'd reached. But I'd never imagined that he'd be the kind of businessman who'd do whatever it took to get a profit, even if it meant cutting off other people from their own.

"I guess that means everybody hates me now."

"Not necessarily," Brian said after taking a swig of Coke. "It's not like you're the one who ordered the people get fired, right?"

I pursed my lips. "Right."

"Hunter's having a spot of trouble wrapping his head around the fact that you have nothing to do with the decisions your old man takes, because his own old man was one of the people affected."

Pace popped his soda can open and said. "Mine too, actually."

I almost felt like apologizing, but at the same time I felt like it was my own father who had to show contrition. Why did I have to pay for his sins? Why did I have to cut off my hair? Why did I have to pretend to be who I wasn't, in a place where I didn't belong?

I steamed for the rest of the day. Once school was let out, Brian asked me if I was going to join them at practice that afternoon, but I told him there was something I had to do that day. I stomped down the street, and it was a wonder the whole town didn't shake under the force of my wrath. I definitely didn't want to do it, but I knew that it'd hurt my dad way more than it'd hurt me, and so therefore I had to do it.